Disposable protective garments are often employed to protect clothing from being soiled by spills. For example, dentists or medical professionals often attach a disposable piece of material to the front of a patient to protect the patient's clothing from spills. A disposable, self-adhesive garment is especially advantageous in that it can be readily disposed of without requiring any reused attachment means to be sterilized. Seafood restaurants often provide for patrons a protective bib to protect clothing from being stained by splattering liquid from crabs or lobsters. In addition such protective garments are often used on children to catch spilled food.
Various disposable garments have been described. U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,698 to Heyman et al. describes a disposable bib. The bibs are dispensed as part of a continuous strand. On the strand, each bib is attached end to end, with each and having a concave upper margin and a convex lower margin. These margins are separated forming two straps with an area of material extending between these straps. The straps are tied around the neck of the user while the body of the bib extends over the user's front. The ends of the strap are coated with adhesive to allow the ends of the strap to be joined. The disposable bibs are manufactured in an end-to-end fashion on a continuous strand.
In a similar fashion, U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,851 to Sanchez describes a disposable bib which may be dispensed from a strand in an end-to-end fashion. The bib is composed of a central portion of water absorbent material sandwiched between a water repellent backing and a framing front piece. The backing has a strap which is affixed about the user's neck by a small adhesive section.
These two bibs present certain disadvantages. Devices secured around children's necks are disfavored because they present certain safety hazards resulting from restriction of breathing and possible choking. Additionally, adhesive can catch in the hair of the person wearing the bib if the bib is attached by an adhesive behind the wearer. If the person wearing the bib leans forward, the bib will swing away from the person's body. The bib may then contact food or possibly get caught on an object.
To avoid the possible dangers of neck straps some protective garments have instead been affixed to the user's front by an adhesive. U.S. Design Pat. No. D303,175 discloses a strip of end-to-end connected bibs with adhesive tabs near the top of the bib to attach the bib to the wearer's front. U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,316 to Klepfer describes another protective garment. The garment is formed by applying a pressure sensitive adhesive coating to a top edge along the length of a piece of material, slicing the material into individual use sections and then folding each section in half. When the garment is unfolded it may then be affixed to the front of the user. U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,523 to Bodner et al. describes a strip of overlapping bibs. The bibs are joined end to end along the strip. An adhesive strip disposed across the width of the bib allows attachment of each bib to a user. None of these references teaches a garment that is prevented from swinging away from a wearer's body.
In manufacturing the protective garments in an end-to-end fashion the adhesive must be applied in a direction perpendicular to the length of the material from which the protective garments are fashioned. This presents certain manufacturing difficulties. Improved methods of manufacturing would provide a simpler, more efficient manufacturing process while maximizing output by simplifying production.
It is an object of the invention to disclose an improved method of manufacturing disposable protective garments.
It is a further object of the invention to produce a roll of side-to-side joined disposable protective garments. Such a garment should have a liquid resistant backing and a liquid absorbent front. This garment should be attached to the user by an adhesive strip disposed along the top of the garment and should have an additional adhesive section on the bottom of the disposable garment to prevent the garment moving away from the user's front.